30th April - Depart Paris - Iceland - Hello NY

We left Paris on Iceland Air and we flew to Iceland. We were only there for about 1 hour and the city is to far away for us to have visited. We ran around trying to buy food for the flight with the left over Euro as Iceland Air does not serve food on international flights- you have to buy it. When you attempt to buy food they are sold out of anything that you might even be tempted to eat. We ended up having a picnic on the floor of the airport. We were all concerned about the Volcano but itwas well behaved and did not interfere with our flight.
Many hours later we arrived in New York. We had to wait quite awhile at the airport for the bus to arrive- much to Bill's annoyance. The hotel was magnificant and we put our suitcases in our room and headed across the road to an Italian restaurant. Then it was off to bed. We have to meet Bill at 8.00am tomorrow for our next challenge. Our room was a full suite with a living room and bedroom. It was so palatial that when Lily first went into the room she couldn't "find" the bed because it was in a separate room.

When we went downstairs in the morning, the scores that the teams had accumulated put the winners so far ahead that no matter who won New York it would make no difference to the first, second and third place placements so Bill decided to close the game - give out the prizes and take the photographs. I am proud to say that the "Littlepage" family took first, second and third place.

Zoe and Rainey - Lawyers without Borders - took first place for the second year in a row.Heidi and Lily - 100% Bajan - took second place and Christine and Barbara - Barbara and the Barbadian - took 3rd place.

Zoe and Rainey are leaving New York around mid day. Christine - my Mum left immediately for The Zammetts house. Barbara left with her husband to attend someone's graduation so t left only 3 teams in New York. 100% Bajan, Maddogs and Indiana Roadrunners. Bill had arranged a finally dinner at a fancy restaurant and we met back at 6.00pm for dinner.

Lily and I had breakfast with Zoe and Rainey and Kit and Joanne. Then we had tearful good-byes. We had had a terrific time and it was s sad that all the excitement was over and it was time to unwind and head home.
We hooked up with Kit and Joanne and wondered around New York city so that Lily could see some of the big apple. Kit and Joanne were so kind, willing to do things from a 13 year olds perspective. We walked down to Time Square, stopping on the way to buy tickets for the matinee show of Wicked.

Time Square is so full of life and action it really is an amazing place to visit. Then we caught the Metro down to the ferry as we were hopeful to visit the Statue of Liberty. When we got down there, it was an 11/2 hour wait to get through security and that would have made it too late for our show. We took pictures of the statue of Liberty in the distance.

Lily got to see some guys who were doing amazing street dancing

Lily wanted to have her portrait done in charcoal, when the artist started with her eyes and hair I thought it ooked like Lily but find he made the bottom part of her face too heavy. She had a great time posing and walked all over the city with her portrait under her arm.

From there we took a metro to Ground Zero, which is under construction but it still gave me goosebumps to stand on the pavement and know that thousands of people lost there lives there.

Then we took another metro to The Flat Iron building. This is a funny triangular shaped building. It was actually one of the challenges that we had to do if we had done the scavenges.

Then it was time to say more good-byes to Kit and Joanne. I know we will see them at dinner but it will be different with everyone else around. They had been great fun all day and I will miss them. We had to leave so we could make it to the show Wicked in time. I really hope I will get to see them again in the near future.

I had seen Wicked before but this time we had seats in the 6th row so we could see the costumes from up close that they really are phenomenal. Lil was completely fascinated and has come home and listened to the music from Wicked all the time.

When we left Wicked we walked home, stopping to buy a drink and some coffee. We walked right pass where later we would learn that a SUV had been parked as a car bomb. We went and got all dressed up in the clothes that had been shipped to New York by Zoe's office so they were all clean and a little dressier.
Bill had a wonderful dinner. I had lamb and I have never had better lamb. The conversation was light with many funny antidotes about the trip. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip. Both Lily and I have been very blessed to have been given the opportunity to have this experience. It will change Lily for a lifetime and it certainly has given me a totally different perspective on life.

After dinner we decided to meander back down to Time Square to see it at night. The lights are so much brighter and the bill boards so much more impressive at night. Much to our dismay all of Time Square was corded off by the police as some one had attempted to detonate a car bomb but some very efficient street vendors had questioned the parked car and had alerted the police and it had been defused.

W wandered bout for quite awhile with Kit, Joanne and Rebeca. Then back to pack up and get ready for our 4.30am departure for JFK and on to home sweet home.